Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

Sports Medley: The Concept of Bountygate is Alive and Well in the NFL 21 Sep 15

by Tony Medley

Bad Behavior is Allowed Because Good People Don’t Say Anything: Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo’s season was possibly ended (out at least half a season) when he broke his clavicle in the third quarter of the game against the Philadelphia Eagles. But it was broken because Eagles linebacker Jordan Hicks flopped on top of him with all his 230 lb. weight as Romo was rolling onto his shoulder, which caused the injury. Romo was already legally down and there was no reason for Hicks to put all his weight on Romo at that time, except to injure him. Hicks could have easily avoided what he did.

In case there is any doubt about Hicks’ intention, a couple of plays later he kicked Dallas wide receiver Cole Beasley in the head when Beasley was down after a reception, knocking Beasley’s helmet off. Hicks was not penalized in either case but the NFL should review the films and suspend him for at least four games. In fact, I think when a player injures another player on an illegal play or when it was obviously intentional, that the offending player should be suspended for as long as the injured player is unable to play.

Last week Cincinnati Bengals’ Adam Jones took rookie Amari Cooper’s head in both of his hands and smashed Cooper’s head hard against Cooper’s helmet which had come off. Was Jones suspended? No, only fined. Even his penalty for unnecessary roughness was offset by another penalty.

This week Baltimore Ravens’ linebacker Daryl Smith gave Oakland Raider wide receiver a knee in the head when he was down on the ground. When Crabtree responded, Crabtree got the penalty. Again, Smith should be suspended by the NFL when it reviews the films. Don’t hold your breath.

This issue wasn’t put to rest with the Bountygate scandal (2009-10), in which players were paid bounties for knocking an opponent out of a game with an injury, that caused New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton to be suspended for a year. Maybe there aren’t any bounties being paid anymore, but there are still lots of hit men in the NFL who will not avoid the opportunity to seriously injure a star player on an opposing team. They proliferate because they are not severely penalized.

The NFL is a league of brutish ruffians because these hooligans are countenanced by everyone in the league office, up to, and including, Commissioner Roger Goodell and the Players' Association. This is foolish because fans come to see the likes of Tony Romo play. When louts like Hicks can end the season of a star like Romo with impunity, the league and the players' union are just hurting themselves by not coming down hard. Hicks should be suspended for a period that doesn’t terminate until Romo returns.

Announcers’ Police: “This is the only time this season that Mariota is feeling adversity”, proclaimed Adam Archuleta, CBS announcer of the Browns-Titans game, seven minutes into the first quarter of the second game of the season. Commenting on a wide receiver who failed to catch a pass a few plays later Archuleta said, “I thought maybe he could have came back to the ball a little bit more.” Archuleta attended Arizona State University for four years. What he learned there is unknown.

Mattingly Good and Bad:­ I’ve come down hard on Don Mattingly but the bottom line is winning and the Dodgers are winning their division easily, although their division is so weak the other teams are just glorified minor leaguers. When the Yankees were dominating in the late ‘30s, people referred to manager Joe McCarthy as a “push button” manager because all he had to do was fill out his lineup card with people like Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig and Bill Dickey and all the other stars and then sit back and watch them win. Mattingly has won by stacking his lineup with .200 hitters and pulling his pitchers when they didn’t need to be pulled. Still he wins.

That doesn’t mean that his decisions aren’t laughably ridiculous, though. Typical was his game-losing decision Saturday when he pulled Clayton Kershaw, one of the two most effective pitchers in baseball this year, because the leadoff batter in the top of the 8^th inning of a 2-2 tie hit Kershaw’s 100^th pitch for a double. Despite the fact that Kershaw had allowed only 7 scattered hits, walked only two and struck out 8, up popped Donnie Baseball, out came Kershaw, and in came Chris Hatcher from the bullpen, who immediately allowed a line drive double to left center to 37-year old, .248-hitting Aramis Ramirez, driving in the winning run. The question is a simple one, who would you rather have on the mound pitching with the game on the line, certain Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, or journeyman Chris Hatcher? My position is that anyone who would choose Hatcher doesn’t deserve to be managing a major league baseball team, I don’t care how many games in front the Dodgers are.